Headache

Headache; Spierings EL. 236 pages. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1998. $25.00. ISBN 0750671289. Order phone 800-366-2665.

Field of medicine: Neurology.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: Generalists in internal medicine.

Purpose: To introduce the reader to the various types of headaches and their treatment.

Content: The book is divided into three sections covering acute, subacute, and chronic headache. Each section includes discussion of epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment. All major headache types are covered, including migraine, cluster headache, and chronic daily headache.

Highlights: The busy internist can easily read this concise, well-written book in 2 hours. The illustrative case histories are especially useful.

Limitations: Because it is not a textbook of headache, the book is really an introduction to the subject. The approaches it offers reflect the personal experience and beliefs of the author. It avoids many of the controversies in headache mechanism, classification, and management.

Related reading: Books on headache usually are either encyclopedic treatises aimed at headache specialists or less detailed monographs designed for generalists. This book is clearly for the generalist and provides useful information in an easy-to-digest form. Readers requiring more in-depth information should consult one of the following three excellent texts: Dalessio and Silberstein's Wolff's Headache and Other Head Pain, 6th edition (Oxford Univ Pr, 1993); Goadsby and Silberstein's Headache (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997); or Lance's Mechanism and Management of Headache, 5th edition (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993).

Reviewer: Daniel B. Hier, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

• Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians